Some 3.5 billion people reside in urban areas. This number is projected to reach 6.3 billion by 2050, increasing from 50% to more than 70% of the world’s population. Cities are centres of creativity and economic progress but they also face many environmental challenges due mainly to air pollution and weather, climate and water-related hazard.

World Meteorological Day takes place every year on 23 March and commemorates the coming into force on 23 March 1950 of the Convention establishing the World Meteorological Organization. It showcases...

The ever-growing global population faces a wide range of hazards such as tropical cyclone storm surges, heavy rains, heatwaves, droughts and many more. Long-term climate change is increasing the intensity...

Weather is a key factor determining the success of the Winter Games. The next Winter Olympic Games will take place from 4 to 20 February 2022, in the municipality of Beijing and the neighbouring Hebei province, in China. The Paralympic Games will follow a month later, from 4 to 13 March. The scheduling of the outdoor events for the Games will rely on very short-term forecasting and nowcasting.

A concerted campaign to boost weather, ice and atmospheric observations in some of the most remote and inhospitable parts on Earth started this week, with the launch of a three-month Special Observing Period in the Antarctic. With days getting longer, the summer is about to start on the Antarctic continent. November is the month when the austral field season begins. This summer, extra atmospheric and sea-ice measurements in addition to the routine observations will be carried out as a contribution to the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP).

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released its new, long-awaited, digitized International Cloud Atlas – the global reference for observing and identifying clouds, which are an essential part of weather, the climate system and the water cycle. It was released for World Meteorological Day on 23rd March.

A concerted international campaign to improve predictions of weather, climate and ice conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic has been launched to minimize the environmental risks and maximize the opportunities associated with rapid climate change in polar regions and to close the current gaps in polar forecasting capacity. The Year of Polar Prediction takes place from mid-2017 to mid-2019 in order to cover an entire year in both the Arctic and Antarctic and involves the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and a wide array of partners around the...

Weather-ready climate-smart is the theme of this year’s World Meteorological Day on 23 March. It highlights the need for informed planning for day-to-day weather and hazards like floods as well as for naturally occurring climate variability and long-term climate change.